The telecommunications industry today provides many proprietary systems for users to access communications networks. Individual telecommunications service providers often operate separate access points to the networks. The access points provided by the service providers usually include proprietary equipment to provide a user an entry-way to the individual service provider's proprietary network.
Access points for wireless telephones include General Packet Radio Server (GPRS) towers and antennae. Access points for land line communications include Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) technology, cable modems, Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11b compliant) technology, or Plain Old Telephone Service (POTS).
A consortium of independent companies have come together to agree on a set of common interoperable products based on Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11b compliant) standards. The consortium promotes standards with the aim of improving the interoperability of wireless local area network products based on the Wi-Fi standards. The consortium certifies products via a set of defined test procedures to establish interoperability. Those manufacturers with membership in the consortium and whose products pass these interoperability tests can mark their products and product packaging with the Wi-Fi logo.
A Wi-Fi access point broadcasts its service set identifier (SSID), or network name via data packets that are called “beacons.” The beacons from the access point are transmitted, and a client device that receives the beacon may decide whether to connect to the access point. If multiple access points with the same SSID are in range of the client device, hardware or software on the client device may determine with which of the two access points the client device will connect.
Wi-Fi standards leave connection criteria open to the client device. This flexibility also means that one wireless client device may perform substantially better than another. The Wi-Fi signal is akin to a radio signal and transmits in the air. The Wi-Fi signal has similar properties to a non-switched wired Ethernet network in which data collisions can occur. However, unlike a wired Ethernet network, Wi-Fi cannot detect collisions, and instead uses an acknowledgment packet for every data packet sent. If a sender receives no acknowledgement within a certain time period, the sender retransmits the corresponding data packet.
A Wi-Fi network may be used to connect computers and other client devices to each other, to the Internet, and to wired networks (which use IEEE 802.3 or Ethernet). As wireless client devices have become pervasive, rapid growth of wireless data services has mandated high-density and indoor deployment of access points. While traditional high-density cellular network deployment may be extremely expensive unless customers own the access equipment, Wi-Fi access point equipment is well proven, and almost every Internet-capable terminal receives Wi-Fi.
However, except for enterprise deployments, Wi-Fi equipment is not consistently deployed and managed. This deployment scenario poses some fundamental challenges to carriers that desire to leverage Wi-Fi networks to relieve data traffic congestion but are committed to service quality (QoS). For example, a cellular terminal is always connected, and users are not accustomed to executing a “connect” action over cellular terminals. Accessing a Wi-Fi access point, on the other hand, requires a user to perform a “connect” action to gain access to the network. Also, while Wi-Fi is integrated into many cellular devices, most users connect to Wi-Fi only when the location or resource or access point is familiar, for example, in a favorite coffee shop, bookstore, or hotel.
In the past, telecom providers and cellular operators also provided call control functions such as establishing and terminating a connection between user devices. Call control functions include establishing a quality of service (QoS) for a communication session that includes voice quality, data quality, and data transfer rates. However, cellular operators cannot be involved in connecting to un-authorized Wi-Fi resources, such as an unlocked Wi-Fi network in a private home, and therefore cannot provide a seamless Wi-Fi connection.
Consequently most users will not switch from a cellular to a Wi-Fi connection voluntarily. In addition, since Wi-Fi networks are often owned by users and not by the network carriers, Wi-Fi resources, access points, and networks often exhibit unpredictable behavior, further reducing users' potential engagement. Although Wi-Fi is prevalent, seamless Wi-Fi connections are quite rare, thereby rendering negligible value to a cellular operator.